Donald Trump Approval Rating Drops 7 Points With GOP Pollster

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped seven points in April, according to a Republican pollster.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.

Why It Matters

Trump’s approval rating has taken a hit as he faces backlash on issues like tariffs and immigration over the past few weeks.

His approval is a key indicator of Americans’ public opinion about his policies and may have electoral implications for the GOP. If his approval continues dropping, that may spell troubling news for Republicans in next year’s midterms, as well as the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races later this year.

What To Know

GOP pollster Rasmussen Reports found that Trump’s approval has dropped seven points so far this month in its daily tracking poll. The Tuesday poll showed that 47 percent of respondents approve of Trump’s job performance, while 51 percent disapprove.

On April 1, 51 percent of respondents said they approved of Trump’s job performance, while 48 percent gave him negative marks.

Rasmussen conducts its daily tracking poll by surveying 300 likely voters each day, and the results are reported on a five-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error for the full 1,500 sample is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

The poll is notably stronger for Trump than other recent surveys.

Mark Mitchell, head pollster at Rasmussen, said in a video discussing Trump’s first 100 days in the White House that his polling situation is “not nearly as dire as the mainstream media would have you say.”

Tariffs are a major policy that Trump emphasized in April. He announced tariffs on dozens of countries during his April 2 “Liberation Day” event at the start of the month, but quickly put most of those tariffs on hold as the stock market reacted negatively and concerns about a recession grew. Many polls suggested most Americans were opposed to the policy.

There are still 145 percent tariffs on China as the two nations remain locked in a trade war.

Robert Y. Shapiro, a professor of political science at Columbia University, told Newsweek the drop in Trump’s approval rating is unsurprising given tariffs and backlash to his administration’s use of Signal chats, executive orders targeting colleges and universities, disputes with judges over their orders, and stance on the Russia-Ukraine war.

“The economic related issues are the ones that will heart the most if inflation increases, the tariffs starts having negative effects on economic growth and jobs, and the stock market takes a further dive affecting people’s assets and retirement accounts,” Shapiro said.

“Trump will have visibly failed on his promise of economic prosperity.”

Meanwhile, other polls suggest Trump’s approval rating on immigration is also declining as his administration faces backlash for the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran immigrant who was deported back to his home country accidentally due to an “administrative error.”

The Trump administration has accused him of having ties to MS-13, which it has designated as a terrorist organization. He has denied having ties to the gang.

An immigration court granted Abrego Garcia’s request not to be deported back to El Salvador over fears of being a target of MS-13’s gang rivals. Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. but has been accused of domestic violence by his wife, who has said they have since reconciled.

Critics have accused the Trump administration of denying him due process by deporting him before he was convicted of any crimes.

What People Are Saying

President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday: “They are negative criminals who apologize to their subscribers and readers after I win elections big, much bigger than their polls showed I would win, loose a lot of credibility, and then go on cheating and lying for the next cycle, only worse.”

CNN data analyst Harry Enten: “Take a look at Trump’s economic approval rating now versus 100 days into his first term and what we see is that it’s 10 points lower. The economy was a strength for him during his first term, now it is a weakness. Now it is dragging him now.”

What Happens Next

Trump’s approval will continue being monitored a barometer of whether Americans support his policies or not. Meanwhile, Trump is set to rally in Michigan on Tuesday to commemorate his first 100 days in office.

Shapiro said Trump’s approval rating could cause Republicans to lose the House of Representatives by “devastating margins” in 2026.

“Not only would Trump lose his unified party government but the Democrats could thwart his legislative efforts and start investigations of what are perceived as his administration’s wrongdoings, and block judicial and other appointment if they gain a majority in the Senate. This all might later have negative consequences for Republicans in the 2028 presidential election,” he said.